Fellow editor Joel Pollak replied: “No-one can figure out what they do.”

‘Deceitful’

In a statement to US broadcaster CNN, Mr Marlow said: “An imposter deceitfully obtained and shared with CNN tongue-in-cheek emails that revealed that we feel globalists present an existential threat to the agenda that got President Trump elected.

“If people want to know our thinking, they don’t need to judge us on illicitly obtained comments that were intended to be private, they can simply read our front page.”

The prankster tweets under the pseudonym Sinon Reborn – a reference to the figure in Greek mythology who tricked Troy into accepting the Trojan Horse.

“Originally I was trying to get an email address for [Steve Bannon] while he was in the White House, because he seemed like quite a character,” Sinon Reborn told the BBC.

When this proved difficult, the prankster said they had decided to try tricking the editors at Breitbart instead.